-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mike Summers; March 2013:
The Trenton airport (TTN) is located about seven miles northwest of Trenton, NJ and about 45 minutes northeast of Philadelphia. Here's two websites for the airport: http://www.ifly.com/trenton-airport and http://www.nj.gov/counties/mercer/departments/airport/ . Budget and Hertz have rental car counters at the airport. Both companies are located on the main level of the terminal facility. Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) is in Newark in New Jersey and is about 1 hour away by car. New Jersey Transit trains stop at EWR, so it's possible to reach Princeton from EWR without a car or taxi. Other than the William Trent Mansion (Website: http://www.williamtrenthouse.org/ ) in Trenton, the Triumph Brewing Company in Princeton (Website: http://www.triumphbrewing.com/princeton/ ), or you want to check out Princeton University (Website: http://www.princeton.edu/main/about/ ), it's best to drive southwest to Philadelphia. Philadelphia is full of history. It's the sixth-largest city in the US (Background Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia ) and the first US capital city. You can see a lot in a two-day visit with one overnight stay. Here's the official visitor's website: http://www.visitphilly.com/ . Frontier flies into Terminal A - East at the Philadelphia Airport (Website: http://www.phl.org/index.html ). For just about every rental car company you go to Zone 2 outside the baggage claim area. From the airport go north on Interstate 95 and take the I-676 exit onto Callowhill Street. Turn left onto 6th Street, which will take you toward Independence Visitors Center. Here's the website: http://www.independencevisitorcenter.com/ . Find a parking garage in the area and ditch the car. Most everything is near the Visitors Center at 6th and Market. You can also take the SEPTA regional train service form the airport to the city center. I rented a car, so I don't have first-hand experience, but here's a map: http://www.septa.org/maps/system/index.html and website: http://www.septa.org/ that would take you from the Airport (Zone 5) to Market East Station (Zone 2). Downtown Philly has a couple of neat sites that you can sort out from visiting the Independence Visitors Center first. From the Visitors Center, we started at the Liberty Bell Center, which is very close to the Visitors Center. It's a very nice building with nice displays and a history of the Liberty Bell (website: http://www.visitphilly.com/history/philadelphia/the-liberty-bell-center/ ). It's very close to Independence Hall which has a nice tour (Website: http://www.visitphilly.com/history/philadelphia/independence-hall/ ). You'll also want to visit Ben Franklin's gravesite, which is in Christ Church Cemetary at the corner of 5th and Arch Street. We paid for a tour of the cemetary, which was worth it. You can also simply look at the gravesite through the iron fence and not pay, but the tour was worth it. Here's the website for the cemetary: http://www.christchurchphila.org/Historic_Christ_Church/Burial_Ground/59/ and information on Franklin: http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/philadelphia/grave.htm . Nearby is Franklin Court, which contains the Franklin Print Shop, Franklin Museum, and US Postal Service Museum (Website: http://www.ushistory.org/tour/franklin-court.htm ). It's on Market Street between 3rd and 4th Streets. It's an 'okay' place to visit. Also nearby at 3rd and Arch Street is the Betsy Ross House (Website: http://www.betsyrosshouse.org/ ). Since you're in the neighborhood, it's worth a visit. We ate lunch at the Independence Brewing Company, which was kid friendly (Website: http://www.independencebrewpub.com/ ). It's located in the Pennsylvania Convention Center at 12th and Filbert Streets. Here's a list of other restaurants in the Olde City Section of Philadelphia: http://www.philadelphia.com/restaurants/old-city.html . We also liked the Eulogy Belgian Tavern with its reasonable prices (Website: http://www.eulogybar.com/). The Good Dog Bar serves very good food. The Truffled Cheese Steak Empanadas are to die for (Website: http://www.gooddogbar.com/index.php ), and they have an excellent beer selection. Something that you have to visit is the Mutter Museum which is part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (Websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCtter_Museum and http://collegeofphysicians.org/Site/mutter_museum.html ). It contains many medical oddities. The $12.00 admission is worth it. Its address is 19 S. 22nd Street, which is a bit of a walk from the other sites. You might want to drive the 3.5 miles from Olde Town to the Museum (Mapquest map: http://mapq.st/h/7-tQFB3Z8k ). Other Museums that we did not visit are the Philadelphia Museum of Art (with the steps made famous in the Rocky movie [Websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Steps and http://www.philamuseum.org/ ]), the Rodin Museum (Website: http://www.rodinmuseum.org/ ), and the Fairmount Park Houses (Website: http://www.philamuseum.org/visit/20-395.html ). If you have time and its baseball season, you might want to watch a Phillies baseball game (Website: http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=phi ). I watched a game in old Veteran's Stadium before the team moved to Citizen's Bank Park. They served great pretzels and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches (Website: http://philadelphia.about.com/od/cheesesteaks/Cheesesteaks.htm ) at the ballpark. You can also head south from Philly to Baltimore (a little more than 2 hours and 110 miles) and visit the Innner-Harbor and Fort McHenry (Websites: http://baltimore.org/about-baltimore/inner-harbor and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Harbor and http://www.nps.gov/fomc/index.htm ), which we did. Atlantic City is a little over 60 miles and 1 hour from Philadelphia (Website: http://atlanticcitynj.com/ ); we didn't go there. All-in-all, Philadelphia is a nice 'historical' city to visit.
Enjoy!
Mike Summers
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Princeton Wikitravel Website: http://wikitravel.org/en/Princeton
Trenton Wikitravel Website: http://wikitravel.org/en/Trenton
Jersey Shore Wikitravel Website: http://wikitravel.org/en/Jersey_Shore
Atlantic City Wikitravel Website: http://wikitravel.org/en/Atlantic_City
Newark Wikitravel Website: http://wikitravel.org/en/Newark_(New_Jersey)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mike Summers; March 2013:
The Trenton airport (TTN) is located about seven miles northwest of Trenton, NJ and about 45 minutes northeast of Philadelphia. Here's two websites for the airport: http://www.ifly.com/trenton-airport and http://www.nj.gov/counties/mercer/departments/airport/ . Budget and Hertz have rental car counters at the airport. Both companies are located on the main level of the terminal facility. Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) is in Newark in New Jersey and is about 1 hour away by car. New Jersey Transit trains stop at EWR, so it's possible to reach Princeton from EWR without a car or taxi. Other than the William Trent Mansion (Website: http://www.williamtrenthouse.org/ ) in Trenton, the Triumph Brewing Company in Princeton (Website: http://www.triumphbrewing.com/princeton/ ), or you want to check out Princeton University (Website: http://www.princeton.edu/main/about/ ), it's best to drive southwest to Philadelphia. Philadelphia is full of history. It's the sixth-largest city in the US (Background Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia ) and the first US capital city. You can see a lot in a two-day visit with one overnight stay. Here's the official visitor's website: http://www.visitphilly.com/ . Frontier flies into Terminal A - East at the Philadelphia Airport (Website: http://www.phl.org/index.html ). For just about every rental car company you go to Zone 2 outside the baggage claim area. From the airport go north on Interstate 95 and take the I-676 exit onto Callowhill Street. Turn left onto 6th Street, which will take you toward Independence Visitors Center. Here's the website: http://www.independencevisitorcenter.com/ . Find a parking garage in the area and ditch the car. Most everything is near the Visitors Center at 6th and Market. You can also take the SEPTA regional train service form the airport to the city center. I rented a car, so I don't have first-hand experience, but here's a map: http://www.septa.org/maps/system/index.html and website: http://www.septa.org/ that would take you from the Airport (Zone 5) to Market East Station (Zone 2). Downtown Philly has a couple of neat sites that you can sort out from visiting the Independence Visitors Center first. From the Visitors Center, we started at the Liberty Bell Center, which is very close to the Visitors Center. It's a very nice building with nice displays and a history of the Liberty Bell (website: http://www.visitphilly.com/history/philadelphia/the-liberty-bell-center/ ). It's very close to Independence Hall which has a nice tour (Website: http://www.visitphilly.com/history/philadelphia/independence-hall/ ). You'll also want to visit Ben Franklin's gravesite, which is in Christ Church Cemetary at the corner of 5th and Arch Street. We paid for a tour of the cemetary, which was worth it. You can also simply look at the gravesite through the iron fence and not pay, but the tour was worth it. Here's the website for the cemetary: http://www.christchurchphila.org/Historic_Christ_Church/Burial_Ground/59/ and information on Franklin: http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/philadelphia/grave.htm . Nearby is Franklin Court, which contains the Franklin Print Shop, Franklin Museum, and US Postal Service Museum (Website: http://www.ushistory.org/tour/franklin-court.htm ). It's on Market Street between 3rd and 4th Streets. It's an 'okay' place to visit. Also nearby at 3rd and Arch Street is the Betsy Ross House (Website: http://www.betsyrosshouse.org/ ). Since you're in the neighborhood, it's worth a visit. We ate lunch at the Independence Brewing Company, which was kid friendly (Website: http://www.independencebrewpub.com/ ). It's located in the Pennsylvania Convention Center at 12th and Filbert Streets. Here's a list of other restaurants in the Olde City Section of Philadelphia: http://www.philadelphia.com/restaurants/old-city.html . We also liked the Eulogy Belgian Tavern with its reasonable prices (Website: http://www.eulogybar.com/). The Good Dog Bar serves very good food. The Truffled Cheese Steak Empanadas are to die for (Website: http://www.gooddogbar.com/index.php ), and they have an excellent beer selection. Something that you have to visit is the Mutter Museum which is part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (Websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCtter_Museum and http://collegeofphysicians.org/Site/mutter_museum.html ). It contains many medical oddities. The $12.00 admission is worth it. Its address is 19 S. 22nd Street, which is a bit of a walk from the other sites. You might want to drive the 3.5 miles from Olde Town to the Museum (Mapquest map: http://mapq.st/h/7-tQFB3Z8k ). Other Museums that we did not visit are the Philadelphia Museum of Art (with the steps made famous in the Rocky movie [Websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Steps and http://www.philamuseum.org/ ]), the Rodin Museum (Website: http://www.rodinmuseum.org/ ), and the Fairmount Park Houses (Website: http://www.philamuseum.org/visit/20-395.html ). If you have time and its baseball season, you might want to watch a Phillies baseball game (Website: http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=phi ). I watched a game in old Veteran's Stadium before the team moved to Citizen's Bank Park. They served great pretzels and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches (Website: http://philadelphia.about.com/od/cheesesteaks/Cheesesteaks.htm ) at the ballpark. You can also head south from Philly to Baltimore (a little more than 2 hours and 110 miles) and visit the Innner-Harbor and Fort McHenry (Websites: http://baltimore.org/about-baltimore/inner-harbor and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Harbor and http://www.nps.gov/fomc/index.htm ), which we did. Atlantic City is a little over 60 miles and 1 hour from Philadelphia (Website: http://atlanticcitynj.com/ ); we didn't go there. All-in-all, Philadelphia is a nice 'historical' city to visit.
Enjoy!
Mike Summers